Conformity assessment involves any direct or indirect activity that assesses products and services to make sure certain requirements are met. It serves a vital purpose for all individuals associated with consumer products and services. Organisations use certain conformity assessment activities based on the needs of the entity.
Importance of Conformity Assessment
Conformity assessment is a significant concept to a variety of organisations, regulators, and consumers. Valuable points include:
* It allows production organisations to show that their goods and services meet and exceed applicable specifications and safety regulations and promotes confidence among consumers when comparing similar products.
* The conformity assessment procedures must be cost efficient to demonstrate a significant value for the organisation and its customers.
Conformity Assessment Activities
Many organisations decide to employ one type of conformity assessment and others use combinations of tasks to demonstrate conformity. Two important factors that affect assessment activities are the requirements of the customer and the risk level of a specific product or service.
Conformity assessment tasks include:
* First Party- used as a self-assessment method by organisations themselves to demonstrate that a product conforms to a specific standard, regulation, or requirement. This activity is an organisation’s statement of conformity.
* Second Party- a task conducted by an organisation’s customer. The organisation enables a certain customer or group of customers to conduct an evaluation of a product or service against certain regulations and standards.
* Third Party- a task that is conducted by an independent outside source of the organisation that is not a customer or affiliate. An example of a third party assessment would be by an independent certification organisation that certifies producers’ compliance with specific standards and issues a related certificate illustrating the conformity.
Conformity assessment is an importance aspect to ensure compliance with certain specifications and safety requirements to meet the needs of consumers and promote value of the products and services provided by organisations.